For some digital consumer products it is desirable to retain information about a path taken by the user through the menu system to allow such user to traverse backwards along that path. It is also desirable to allow multiple instances of full-scale video to be present in the audit trail. However, current menu systems are designed so that a simple recording of the path results in indeterminately long audit trails, since the menu system allows the user to “loop” within the menu system (that is, to invoke screen B from screen A, and then invoke screen A from screen B, allowing many other screens in between).
Many digital consumer products that implement an audit trail have an abundance of memory and very little information about the nature of the screens being viewed. Some of these products have implemented a simple audit trail management scheme that allows only a single instance of each screen (including full-screen video) with simple truncation of the audit trail. For example, such systems typically clear the audit trail when returning to full-screen video or when creating a new screen that is already in the audit trail, and truncate the audit trail by replacing the previous instance of the screen and everything added after it, thus essentially replacing the previous instance of the screen with a new instance. Clearly, there are problems associated with current audit trail management schemes.
It is evident from the above that there is a need for effective and/or efficient audit trail management for menu systems in digital consumer products.